Often you may require number table for various purposes like parsing a CSV file into a table, string manipulation, or finding missing identities (see example below), etc. Numbers tables are used to increase performance (by avoiding cursors) and simplify...

This is the fourth part in a multi-part blog series about securing your connection string in Windows Azure. In the first blog post ( found here ) a technique was discussed for creating a public/private key pair, using the Windows Azure Certificate Store...

This is the third part in a multi-part blog series about securing your connection string in Windows Azure. In the first blog post ( found here ) a technique was discussed for creating a public/private key pair, using the Windows Azure Certificate Store...

This is the second part in a multi-part blog series about securing your connection string in Windows Azure. In the first blog post ( found here ) a technique was discussed for creating a public/private key pair, using the Windows Azure Certificate Store...

One of the challenges you face in running a highly secure SQL Azure environment is too keep your connection string to SQL Azure secure. If you are running Windows Azure you need to provide this connection string to your Windows Azure code, however you...

SQL Azure doesn’t currently support page level or row level compression like the enterprise edition of SQL Server 2008. However, you can implement your own column level compression in your data access layer to take advantage of the performance and cost...

Liam Cavanagh has posted a webcast to Channel 9 that shows you how to extend the capabilities of SQL Azure Data Sync by writing a custom sync applications to enable bi-directional data synchronization between SQL Server and SQL Azure. This enables you...

In a previous blog post I covered how to calculate the cost of a covered index, allowing you to evaluate if the performance of the covered index was worth its monthly cost. In this blog post I am going to use Transact-SQL to calculate the average cost...

The original blog post doesn’t work as written, since the destination user executing the CREATE DATABASE must have exactly the same name as SQL Azure Portal Administrator name on the source database; i.e. you can only copy from a database where you know...

In this example application, I am going to build a Bing Maps tile server using Windows Azure that draws push pins on the tiles based on coordinates stored as spatial data in SQL Azure. Bing Maps allows you to draw over their maps with custom tiles; these...

Microsoft® Project Code-Named “Houston” is a lightweight and easy to use database management tool for SQL Azure databases. It is designed specifically for Web developers and other technology professionals seeking a straightforward solution to quickly...

With the release of Service Update 4 for SQL Azure you now have the ability to make a snapshot of your running database on SQL Azure. This allows you to quickly create a backup before you implement changes to your production database, or to create a test...

  Service Update 4 is now live with database copy, improved help system, and deployment of Microsoft Project Code-Named “Houston” to multiple data centers. Support for database copy: Database copy allows you to make a real-time complete snapshot...

The new version (v4.2) of SQL Server Migration Assistant that came out on August 12 th , 2010 allows you to move your Microsoft Access Tables and queries to SQL Azure. In this blog post I will walk through how to use the SQL Server Migration Assistant...

David Robinson will be in New Zealand this month for TechEd New Zealand 2010 . If you are interested in SQL Azure make sure to attend his presentations. COS209 Migrating Applications to Microsoft SQL Azure Are you looking to migrate your on-premise applications...

In a previous blog post I discussed creating covered indexes to increase performance and reduce I/O usage. Covered indexes are a type of non-clustered index that “covers” all the columns in your query to create better performance than a table scan of...

Currently Microsoft doesn’t provide a PaaS version of SQL Server Reporting Service , where you can run your server-side (.rdl) reports in the cloud. However, if you want to run reports using Microsoft reporting technology you can use Windows Azure to...

If you’ve been looking for information on SQL Azure security, check out Security Resources for the Windows Azure Platform . This new topic in the MSDN Library provides links to many of the articles, blogs, videos, and webcasts on Windows Azure Platform...

To me, as a DBA, the most important thing about the Windows Azure Platform Appliance , announced here , is the translation of my SQL server skill set across all deployment scenarios. The knowledge is portable because the database technology is scalable...

Slow or long-running queries can contribute to excessive resource consumption and be the consequence of blocked queries; in other words poor performance. The concept of blocking is not different on SQL Azure then on SQL Server. Blocking is an unavoidable...

Microsoft Codename “Dallas” CTP3 is now live in production at www.sqlazureservices.com ! CTP 3 brings with it a number of improvements, rounding out the Dallas experience and making it easier to develop applications using data from Dallas subscriptions;...

SQL Server Migration Assistant ( SSMA for MySQL v1.0 ) has been updated to support migration from MySQL to SQL Azure. This release makes it possible to move data directly and easily from local MySQL databases into SQL Azure, to help you better consolidate...

SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA for Access v4.2) has been updated to support migrating your schema and data from Microsoft Access to SQL Azure. This release makes it possible to move data directly and easily from local Microsoft Access databases...

I see this come up from time to time, so I thought I would set the record straight; a server isn’t a machine. In SQL Azure, there is a concept of a server, which appears in the SQL Azure portal looking like this: However, a server isn’t the same as a...

SQL Azure databases are capped in size; one reason for this is that we don’t want to send you a surprise bill if your data grows beyond your expectations. You can always increase or decrease the cap of your database (up to 50 Gigabytes); however...